Yuki Bhambri/ Saketh Myneni (pair) Thread

[jayakris]

At the Challenger 80 in Gwangju, S. Korea (Hard)

[R1] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Seong-chan Hong (KOR)/ JiSung Nam (KOR)

Further discussions will be in the Asian Challengers 2022 thread, as Mukund has also qualified in for singles there. [Update: They reached the final at Gwangju; See the thread for the scores]

[prashanthm]

With points falling off for some of the other players this week, Yuki is #97 and Saki is #84 in the live rankings.

They can win some matches this week to consolidate their respective positions within the Top-100....

They also have a real chance of getting into one of the 3 ATP tournaments next week after the dust is settled with withdrawals.....

[jayakris]

At the Challenger 110 in Seoul, S.Korea (Hard)

[R1] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Sho Shimabukuro (JPN)/ Seita Watanabe (JPN)

With 110 pts and $7,750 for the winners, this would be a good challenger for our guys to win, so that they can inch closer and closer to making ATP events. Hope they have done a lot of first serve practice. Missing first serves is basically why they lost the doubles final at Gwangju last week after being up a set early.

[prashanthm]

Easy does it for the top-seeds..... Straight sets win to go through to the QF...

[R1] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) d. Sho Shimabukuro (JPN)/ Seita Watanabe (JPN) 64 64

[PKBasu]

So Yuki and Saketh are each at their career-best (live) doubles rankings of 97 and 84. Next up, they face one half of the reigning Wimbledon champion pair:

[QF] 1-Yuki Bhambri/Saketh Myneni (IND/IND) vs. Max Purcell/Marc Polmans (AUS/AUS)

Last week, the full Wimbledon champion pair (Ebden/Purcell) was seeded 2nd at the Japan Open, reflecting the absurd fact that Wimbledon awarded no points this year. Polmans has a poor doubles ranking now, but was ranked 68 in doubles in 2017 (when he was 20 years old).

[sameerph]

I wonder what is Purcell doing playing doubles in challengers ? He is ranked 39 in ATP doubles rankings and reached Australian open final too and has an ATP title at Houston and if Wimbledon gave points, he would have been close to top 10.

This is a very tough high ATP level match coming up later today for Yuki-Saki.

[jayakris]

^^^ Maybe Purcell is trying to build a long-term partnership with Polmans, and going through challengers to improve their team-game or something? (I have no idea; just a guess). It is weird, really.

[rajitghosh]

These are sort of matches you need to win to prove you belong to the top. If Yuki/Saki can win this it would truly establish their doubles credentials.

[jayakris]

^^^ True. That is a bonafide ATP tour event seeds quality team they are going against.

[prashanthm]

[QF] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) l. Max Purcell (AUS) /Marc Polmans (AUS) 46 76(12) 6-10

A very close match in the end, but a loss neverthless...

Looking at the stats, first serve % of 59 isn't great, although our team faced only one breakpoint in the entire match and unfortunately they couldn't save that. On the other hand, they had 4 shots, two in each set, at breaking their opponents and couldn't convert even a single one.
Second set tie-breaker must have been a humdinger and our team must have saved multiple match-points before winning the tie-break 14-12... but lost the STB 6-10
In the end, they won one point more than their opponents, but lost the match...

Hopefully the'll be able to get into an ATP tournament next week and win some big points.... They're currently 4 out in Antwerp and Stockholm...

[sameerph]

Hopefully the'll be able to get into an ATP tournament next week and win some big points.... They're currently 4 out in Antwerp and Stockholm...

I am not sure if they intend to go there though. They are 4 out with same 3 pairs ahead of them as alternates in both places. So, couple of withdrawals in both places and they will get in. But, if it is uncertain I do not know how they will make travel plans. I think instead they will continue in Korea for Busan Challenger which is bigger challenger than the current Seoul one.

Anyway, both will be at their career high rankings of 84 (Saketh) and 97 (Yuki). They may move down a spot or so as some of them are still alive this week. Saki needs around 95-100 points to make it top 80, Yuki needs around 200 points. I think couple more challenger titles will do it as Saketh may move further up and their combined ranking should be better than 160 which needs to be AO main draw and ATP draws.

[prashanthm]

I agree that from a logistical point of view, it definitely makes sense to stay back in Korea and play the Busan CH...

Irrespective of the route they choose...

[prashanthm]

So, Busan CH it is for Yuki/Saki...

Also, unfortunate for Yuki/Saki this week losing a close match and then their opponents giving a walk over in the next round....

Anyway, they are going to be top-seeds again next week at the Busan Challenger, Hard, $159,360

up against a WC pair in R1... We can move this discussion to the Asian Challengers thread if Sasi manages to qualify into the main draw...

[jayakris]

At the M125 Busan Challenger, S.Korea (Hard)

YukiSaki had an easy match just now, against a couple of wildcard Koreans whom they basically toyed with.

[R1] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) d. (WC) Cheong-Eui Kim (KOR)/ Ji Hoon Son (KOR), 63 62

They next get a team who advanced without an R1 match, as there were no alternates to play them. In fact, two Korean teams advanced like that without a match, and a Czech team also advanced on a walkover to the QF.

[QF] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Seong-chan Hong (KOR)/ Sanhui Shin (KOR)

[arjun2761]

Wow, this is a really favorable draw for a 125 point challenger. Their main threats appear to be the Polman/Purcell pairing but thankfully they are in the other half of the draw.